MaximumPC 2005 06

Quick Start

HDTV under Fire!

The broadcast flag will enforce

DRM for HD video, but you can

avoid problems by upgrading today

I

f you’re like us, you enjoy recording

TV shows and ripping them to Divx

to watch on a laptop or to stream to

another PC on your home network. Using

today’s technology, this is totally legal and

fairly easy to do with the right hardware.

All that is going to change, though, on

July 1, 2005, when the FCC’s “broadcast

flag” for digital video streams and HDTV

recorders makes its debut.

Broadcast-flag technology uses a signal

embedded in the digital television stream

that tells the recorder what it can and

cannot do with the stream once it’s been

captured. The flag might dictate that the

content can’t be copied to another device,

it might not permit archiving to DVD, or

it could allow free distribution—the latter

scenario being the least likely.

If you think this will be a gradual

rollout, think again. The FCC has

mandated that every TV tuner, HDTV

recorder, and digital television stream be

broadcast flag-enabled as of July 1, 2005.

Of course, it’s possible vendors will release

flag-enabled product ahead of schedule;

and it’s our understanding that non-

enabled product on store shelves prior to

the deadline can remain there until sold.

Our advice? Don’t mess around—go

shopping now. Visit EFF.org for a list of

currently available hardware that is not

broadcast-flag enabled.

FUN-SIZE NEWS

BUH-BYE COMDEX

As much as we love visiting Las Vegas

for its enchanting nightlife, we were

excited to hear that Comdex has been

cancelled once again. The foot-punish-

ing industry trade show has suffered

waning attendance numbers for sev-

eral years, and was cancelled in 2004

for the first time in 25 years. With the

“vertical enhancing” show cancelled

again in 2005, we can only hope it will

never return.

DELL MOVES TO BTX

Believe it or not, only some forms of

exotic Persian land snails actually

move slower than the rollout of the

new BTX formfactor. But the BTX

movement is expected to pick up some

serious steam in late 2005 when Dell

embraces the next-gen formfactor with

its desktop line. Developed by Intel,

BTX relocates the motherboard and

case components for improved cooling

and efficiency. Dell won’t be the first

to ship BTX, though; Gateway already

offers BTX desktops.

RFID REFRESH

When people hear the term “RFID

chips” they think of Big Brother, Minority

Report , and John Ashcroft, so the

Department of Homeland Security and

Philips have done what any sensible

doublespeak-loving organization would:

change the term to something less

scary. From now on, please refer to radio

frequency identification chips as “con-

tactless chips.” Thank you very much.

Your cooperation is noted, good citizen.

P.S. No, we’re not making this up.

6 MA XIMUMPC JUNE 2005

This Pre-N router from

Belkin is a bit ahead of its

time; the actual 802.11n

protocol won’t appear

until 2007.

T

he successor to 802.11g Wi-Fi is

coming, but don’t toss out your G

router just yet. The IEEE committee is

poised to ratify the new 802.11n wireless

standard, but technology based on it is

unlikely to appear in your home until some

time in 2007.

The N protocol promises radical

performance improvements over existing

802.11g Wi-Fi networks, with actual

speeds expected to

top that of 100Mb

Ethernet—that’s

comparable to speeds

obtained by today’s

hard-wired networks.

It sounds even better

compared with today’s

G standard, which

rarely exceeds 23Mb/s.

What’s more, it will retain

that performance level even at

range.

The IEEE voted on a

first draft of the 802.11n

specification in April.

And while the industry

is ecstatic over the buzz,

even the president and

CEO of one of the standard’s biggest

proponents had a lukewarm reaction:

“There’s so much hype and noise about all

this, but the draft is not an outcome in any

sense of the word,” said Airgo Networks’

Greg Raleigh. Airgo is a key member of the

consortium that proposed this particular

technology back in August 2004.

Although some companies might

build routers based on the 1.0 draft of the

standard as early as this fall, there’s little

chance those boxes will work with genuine

802.11n products when they arrive in

2007. There’s also the problem
      of whether N speeds will
      even be relevant in
      two years’ time.
      While 100Mb/s is
      fine for streaming
      MP3s and low-grade
      video, it certainly
      won’t be able to stream
      high-def movies to our wall-
      mounted holodeck displays.
      As much as we look forward
      to the rollout of 802.11n, it
      could very well end up being
      too little, too late when it
      finally arrives.

802.11n Promises Wi-Fi at Wired Speeds

But don’t hold your breath—the spec’s still a long way off

Come July 2005, this TV tuner sans

broadcast-flag technology will be

worth a fortune on eBay!